• Guests can sleep on the USS Cobia, a World War II submarine, at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.
• The submarine is listed on Airbnb and can sleep up to 65 people in sailors' bunks.
• My stay was a memorable experience that gave me a newfound respect for US Navy submariners.

At the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, you can descend a steep staircase into the USS Cobia, a US Navy submarine that sank 13 ships and earned four battle stars in World War II. You can walk through the rooms and learn about its history in combat from a US Navy veteran or self-guided audio tour.

Unlike other museums, you can also sleep there.

Through the museum's "Sub Bnb" experience, guests can book a stay on the USS Cobia via Airbnb and spend the night in the same bunks where submariners once slept during their wartime service.

For years, the Wisconsin Maritime Museum hosted Boy Scout troops and other large groups on the submarine, which can sleep up to 65 people. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and large groups could no longer visit, the museum pivoted to hosting individual families. The experiences proved so popular that the museum has continued to offer overnight stays for large and small groups alike.

"The Sub Bnb was a business move in many ways for the sustainability of the museum," Wisconsin Maritime Museum director Kevin Cullen told Business Insider.

The cost of the Sub BnB starts at $500 per night, plus a $100 cleaning fee and an $85 Airbnb service fee for a total of $685. Business Insider paid a discounted media rate of $200 to report this story.

The funds earned from Sub Bnb stays help support the museum.

"Just by staying there, you get that authentic experience, but you're also supporting preservation for generations to come," Cullen said.

In December, I visited the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for an overnight stay on the USS Cobia accompanied by my dad, a maritime enthusiast.

Here's what it's like to spend a night on a World War II submarine.

The USS Cobia was visible from the parking lot when we arrived at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum for our submarine stay.

The USS Cobia was docked outside the museum in the Manitowoc River. The freshwater river has helped preserve the submarine over the years since it's less corrosive than saltwater.

Inside the museum, we were greeted by Mark Becker, a US Navy submarine veteran and museum volunteer who served as our tour guide.

Becker served on the USS Silversides during the Cold War.

Becker took us outside for our first proper look at the USS Cobia.

The USS Cobia sank 13 ships during its six patrols in World War II, earning four battle stars. The submarine also rescued seven downed American pilots.

After the war, the USS Cobia was brought to Manitowoc to serve as a memorial for submariners. The Wisconsin Maritime Museum acquired it in 1986. That same year, the USS Cobia became a National Historic Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

It's not the first submarine to grace the shores of Manitowoc. The Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, which was located just miles from the museum, built 28 submarines during World War II.

Standing on the deck, I was amazed by the size of the submarine.

Becker told us that the USS Cobia actually spent most of her patrols on the surface of the water, not underwater.

"Cobia is basically a gunboat that can submerge if she has to, not like a true submarine like I was on," he said. "Cobia was better on the surface. Faster, more maneuverable, and way more firepower."

The smell of diesel fuel became stronger as I walked down a set of stairs into the submarine.

The stairs didn't exist during the USS Cobia's wartime service. Sailors used ladders to enter and exit the sub through narrow hatches.

Becker said we were free to sleep in any of the bunks on the USS Cobia that we saw along the tour.

The first stop on the tour, the forward torpedo room, featured pull-out bunks where torpedomen slept.

The only exception was the captain's stateroom, which remained off-limits.

The captain's stateroom was not available to overnight guests out of respect for the rank.

Walking through the USS Cobia, the hallways were so narrow that I could barely lift my arms to my sides.

I couldn't believe that a crew of 80 men once navigated the submarine's narrow spaces for months at a time.

The hatches required some clambering to navigate from room to room and could have painful consequences if one forgot to duck.

Instead of doorways that could be walked through, the hatches required me to duck and climb through the small openings.

Becker said that during his submarine service in the Navy, he once hit his head while running through the ship after a call rang out for crew members to report to their battle stations.

"I didn't duck far enough, and, pow, I hit my head at the top of that thing," he said. "I damn near knocked myself out."

A perk of staying on the submarine overnight was the personalized tour, which included spaces not usually open to the public like the pump room.

In the control room, which contained the ship's navigational equipment and controls, Becker opened a hatch in the floor that led to the pump room. I climbed down the ladder to take a look.

The pump room featured air compressors, cooling systems, and pumps that removed accumulated water.

A laminated set of directions included 54 steps to operate the machinery. Becker said that crew members would have been working here all day and all night.

Becker also let us tinker around with some of the switches in the control room.

The USS Cobia has been so well maintained that many of its controls still work. The museum staff instructed us not to touch any of the buttons or switches while staying on the submarine to prevent any technical mishaps.

In the control room, Becker showed my dad how to pull the lever that sounded the "battle stations" alarm. I was surprised by how loud it was, but it needed to be heard over the roar of the submarine's four diesel engines.

After we finished our tour, we picked up our seabags containing all of our linens for the evening.

Each seabag provided by the museum included a pillow, a pillowcase, a fitted sheet, a top sheet, and a microplush blanket.

Sailors received similar seabags during their submarine service.

My dad chose a bunk in the forward torpedo room at the front of the submarine.

The night we visited the USS Cobia, temperatures in Manitowoc reached a low of 16 degrees Fahrenheit. Thankfully, the submarine was heated, and the forward torpedo room was the warmest on the ship.

I set up my bed down the hall in the "goat locker," where chief petty officers slept.

When the rank of chief petty officer was established in 1893, the officers' duties included managing the goats that were kept on ships to produce fresh milk. The goats were kept in the chief petty officer's quarters, which then became known as the "goat locker," according to the Naval History and Heritage Command.

Becker said that the nickname also poked fun at the senior officers, who were referred to as "old goats" since they had been in the Navy for a long time.

The goat locker contained five beds, and the mattress was surprisingly comfortable. The confined quarters reminded me of the night I once spent in a Dolly Parton-themed RV in Tennessee. Journalism is fun, kids.

My bunk featured its own light and a few drawers for storage — benefits that high-ranking officers enjoyed.

Most crew members only received one cubic foot of space for their personal belongings, but higher-ranking officers had access to more storage in their bunks.

We ate dinner in the ward room, where officers took their meals, held meetings, and spent their downtime.

We brought our own food and ate on the submarine, but there are several restaurants located near the museum for visitors who want to dine out.

It was surreal to step inside an active museum exhibit and eat dinner alongside the fake food displayed on real US Navy tableware.

Since the USS Cobia does not have working bathrooms, I went back into the museum to get ready for bed.

When guests sleep on the USS Cobia, the museum stays open for them all night. A staff member also sleeps at the museum to be available if guests need anything.

Staying on the submarine required going up and down its stairs and outside for every bathroom trip, which could prove difficult for those with mobility challenges or inconvenient for those who make frequent nighttime trips. The museum can also accommodate overnight guests inside the building if needed.

While brushing my teeth, I charged my phone since there were no easily accessible outlets on board.

There was no phone service on the submarine, either.

"You are in an entirely metal encapsulated vessel, therefore cell phone service and internet is not available on board," the email with our check-in instructions read.

Walking through the dark, empty museum at night was just as cool as I imagined it would be.

Ever since I watched "Night at the Museum," a 2006 film in which exhibits at the American Museum of Natural History come alive at night, I've wondered what it would be like to visit a museum after hours.

All of my "Night at the Museum" dreams came true at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum. We were given free rein to wander as we pleased.

Walking around the museum at night did feel different, similar to the way that watching a scary movie in the dark adds a certain gravitas.

We had the entire museum to ourselves, which allowed us to take our time looking through the exhibits.

I particularly enjoyed the exhibits about shipwreck artifacts discovered off the coasts of Wisconsin and the history of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. Even though I grew up in Wisconsin, I had no idea of the extent of its maritime history.

In my bunk that night, I thought about all of the soldiers who left their families and homes to spend months on board the USS Cobia.

It's one thing to walk through a World War II submarine on a guided tour and imagine what life was like on board. It's another to fully immerse yourself in the experience by eating where they ate and sleeping where they slept.

I thought about what Becker told us during our tour as we walked through the crew's quarters — no matter how tough sailors seemed, the sound of tearful sniffles would always be audible at night.

"I don't care what ship it is — aircraft carrier, submarine — you're going to hear it," he said.

The next morning, I watched the sunrise from the deck.

I'd been a little bit worried about getting seasick on the sub, but I didn't notice much movement and felt fine the whole time. I slept from around 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. then found it difficult to fall back asleep due to the chilly temperature on board.

I took advantage of the early hour and watched the sun's pink glow start to peek through the clouds.

As the sun came up, I got a better look at the guns atop the deck.

The USS Cobia was equipped with three guns: a 50-caliber deck gun, a Bofors 40 mm gun, and an Oerlikon 20 mm cannon.

I noticed other details that I'd missed in the dark, like the name "Cobia" inscribed on the side of the submarine.

Cobia, pronounced KOH-bee-uh, is a species of fish.

I stepped back onto the walkway connecting the submarine to the museum to take in the full view, once again marveling at its enormity and history.

At 312 feet, the USS Cobia was almost as long as the Green Bay Packers' Lambeau Field.

The Wisconsin Maritime Museum provided us with breakfast in one of its meeting rooms.

Breakfast included instant oatmeal packets, granola bars, muffins, bagels, orange juice, and coffee.

After breakfast, we took a bit more time to walk through the museum, including an in-depth look at the USS Cobia.

The USS Cobia exhibit inside the museum featured an immersive audiovisual presentation set in a model of the submarine's control room. Voice actors and animated crew members reenacted the USS Cobia's sinking of a Japanese ship loaded with 28 tanks headed to Iwo Jima in 1945.

I commemorated my stay with a magnet from the museum gift shop that read "I stayed the night on the USS Cobia."

The magnet cost $5.95.

Spending the night on the USS Cobia was a memorable experience that gave me a newfound respect for US Navy submariners.

Cullen, the museum director, hopes that when guests stay on the USS Cobia, it sparks "a moment of recognition of the tremendous sacrifice that submariners in World War II underwent."

"That's what museums really are here for," he said. "The objects are witness to history — witness to tremendous tragedy as Cobia was in wartime efforts, but also witness to the tremendous humanity of those moments in time that I think connect us as people cross-culturally and cross-generationally."

I also asked my dad for his take.

"Sleeping in the forward torpedo room with the gentle movement of the floating sub and the ever-prevalent smell of old diesel fuel long expired gave me a small taste of what life on a submarine must have been like," he said. "Truly a unique experience and a must for all militaria aficionados."

Indeed, the smell of diesel fuel lingered in my hair and on my clothes after our stay — a souvenir of its own.

• Israel invoked a WWII precedent in trying to justify its pre-emptive strikes in Syria.
• During WWII, the Royal Navy attacked the fleet of its former ally to keep it from Nazi control.
• Both operations were borne in atmospheres of fear and crisis.

When Israel sank six Syrian warships at the port of Latakia this week amid larger attacks on the military remnants of the ousted Assad regime, Israel's leader invoked a precedent from World War II.

"This is similar to what the British Air Force did when it bombed the fleet of the Vichy regime, which was cooperating with the Nazis, so that it would not fall into the Nazis' hands," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Though Netanyahu's history was faulty — it was the Royal Navy rather than the RAF that struck the French fleet — his analogy was revealing. The attack on the port of Mers-el-Kebir on July 3, 1940, has gone down as either a courageous decision that saved Britain — or a treacherous and needless backstab of an ally.

At the least, it is one of Britain's most controversial decisions of the Second World War. Like Israel today, the British acted amid an atmosphere of crisis, haste and uncertainty. The Israeli goal is to keep the now-deposed Syrian government's huge arsenal — which includes chemical weapons and ballistic missiles — from falling into the hands of rebel groups, which are dominated by Islamic militants. For Britain, the goal was to keep Adolf Hitler's hands off the French fleet, the fourth-largest navy in the world in 1940.

In that chaotic summer of 1940, the situation looked grim. The German blitzkrieg had just conquered France and Western Europe, while the cream of the British Army had barely been evacuated — minus their equipment — from Dunkirk. If the Germans could launch an amphibious assault across the English Channel, the British Army was in no condition to repel them.

However, Operation Sealion — the Nazi German plan to invade Britain — had its own problems. The Kriegsmarine — the German Navy — was a fraction of the size of the Royal Navy, and thus too small to escort vulnerable troop transports. But Britain's Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to contemplate a situation he had never expected: a combined German-French battlefleet.

Technically, France had only agreed to an armistice — a permanent cease-fire — with Germany rather than surrender. France would be divided between German-occupied northern zone, and a nominally independent rump state of Vichy comprising southern France and the colonies of the French Empire. Vichy France would be allowed a meager army, and the French Navy would be confined to its home ports.

The British didn't trust French promises that its ships would be scuttled if the Germans tried to seize them. Why had France signed a separate peace with Germany after earlier pledging not to? Why didn't the French government choose to go into exile, and continue the war from its North African colonies as the British urged? London was well aware that the right-wing Vichy government — under Field Marshal Philippe Pétain, hero of the First World War — had more affection for the Third Reich than it did for Britain. With Germany master of Europe, Pétain sneered that Britain would soon "have its neck wrung like a chicken."

After Vichy rebuffed pleas to send the fleet to British ports, Churchill and his ministers decided the risk was too great. In late June 1940, the Royal Navy received orders for Operation Catapult. A task force — including the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and three battleships and battlecruisers — would be dispatched to the French naval base at Mers-el-Kebir, near the Algerian port of Oran. A powerful French squadron of four battleships and six destroyers were docked there, including the new battleships Dunkerque and Strasbourg.

The French were to be given six hours to respond to an ultimatum: sail their ships to British ports and fight the Germans, sail them to French Caribbean ports and sit out the war, demilitarize their ships at Mers-el-Kebir, or scuttle their vessels. When the local French commander tried to delay while summoning reinforcements, the British opened fire.

The ensuing battle was not the Royal Navy's most glorious. Caught in every admiral's nightmare — unprepared ships anchored in port — the French were simply smothered by British gunfire. The battleship Bretagne and two destroyers were sunk, two other battleships damaged, and 1,297 French sailors perished. The British suffered two dead.

This was no repeat of the Battle of Trafalgar, when the Royal Navy smashed a Franco-Spanish fleet off Spain in 1805. Most ships at Mers-el-Kebir were damaged rather than sunk, and the French fleet quickly relocated its scattered vessels to the heavily defended French port at Toulon (where they were scuttled in November 1942 when German troops occupied Vichy). Though Vichy didn't declare war on Britain — and only retaliated with a few minor attacks on British bases — it confirmed old French prejudices about British treachery and "perfidious Albion."

Britain's attack on Mers-el-Kebir was political as much as military. In the summer of 1940, many people — including some in the United States — believed that the British would be conquered or compelled to make peace with a victorious Germany. Churchill argued that Britain had to show its resolve to keep on fighting, not least if it hoped to persuade America to send tanks, ships and war materials via a Lend-Lease deal. Attacking a former ally may have been a demonstration of British resolve.

Israel's situation does not resemble that of Britain in 1940. Syria has never been an ally of Israel. The two nations have had an armistice since 1949, punctuated by multiple wars and clashes over the years. Britain acted out of a sense of weakness, while Israel is confident enough of its strength to hit targets in Syria.

Yet by citing Mers-el-Kebir as a precedent, Netanyahu proved a golden rule of international relations that applied in 1940 and still applies today: Nations always act in their own interests. Faced with a choice between respecting a former ally and defending Britain from invasion, Churchill chose the latter. Netanyahu didn't hesitate to do the same.

Michael Peck is a defense writer whose work has appeared in Forbes, Defense News, Foreign Policy magazine, and other publications. He holds an MA in political science from Rutgers Univ. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

• The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor began at 7:48 a.m. on December 7, 1941.
• The attack killed some 2,400 Americans and wounded many others, while sinking four battleships.
• Photographs show the immediate aftermath of the attack that drew America into World War II.

December 7, 1941, began as a perfect Sunday morning for the troops serving the US fleet at Pearl Harbor.

Under a early morning South Pacific sun, softball teams were lining up on the beach. Pitchers warmed up their arms, while batting rosters were finalized and the wives and kids came over from seaside church services.

They did not know that for hours the Japanese naval fleet and air forces had been speeding across the ocean toward America's Pacific base. There, like a string of pearls draped across the docks and waterfront, was the majority of America's naval might.

The devastating Japanese onslaught began at 7:48 a.m., eventually killing 2,402 Americans and wounding many others, sinking four battleships and damaging many more.

The US promised never to forget this day of infamy. The attack spurred America into World War II, leading ultimately to Allied victory over the Japanese in the East and Nazis and other Axis powers in the West.

Here are photographs from the attack on Pearl Harbor and its immediate aftermath.

Amanda Macias and Kamelia Angelova contributed to an earlier version of this story.

On the morning of December 7, 1941, an attack planned by Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto to demobilize the US Navy was carried out.

Around 7 a.m., an Army radar operator spotted the first wave of the Japanese planes. The officers who received these reports did not consider them significant enough to take action.

The Japanese hit most of the US ships in Oahu before 9 a.m.

The Japanese also took the opportunity to attack military airfields while bombing the fleet in Pearl Harbor. The purpose of these simultaneous attacks was to destroy American planes before they could respond.

More than 90 ships were anchored at Pearl Harbor. The primary targets were the eight battleships in Battleship Row.

The USS West Virginia, left, was one of the battleships to sink during the attack. The Japanese successfully damaged all eight.

At about 8:10 a.m., the USS Arizona exploded as a bomb ignited its forward ammunition magazine. About half of the total number of Americans killed that day were on this ship.

Here's another picture of the USS Arizona sinking.

The USS Shaw, a destroyer, also exploded during the two-hour attack by Japan.

The damaged USS Nevada tried to escape to open sea but became a target during the second wave of 170 Japanese planes, hoping to sink it and block the narrow entrance to Pearl Harbor. The ship was grounded with 60 killed on board.

A Japanese plane hit by American naval antiaircraft fire was engulfed in flames. Fewer than 30 Japanese planes were lost in the attack.

About 190 US planes were destroyed, and another 159 were damaged.

Sailors at the Naval Air Station in Kaneohe, Hawaii, attempted to salvage a burning PBY Catalina in the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

People in New York's Times Square bought newspapers with headlines like this one, "Japs Attack US." The US entered World War II after the surprise attack.

Salvage work soon began on the destroyers USS Cassin and USS Downes. The Japanese failed to damage any US aircraft carriers, which weren't in the harbor.

About 10% of Japanese planes were lost on December 7, 1941.

The USS Oklahoma was considered too old to be worth repairing.

Here, a Marine holds a piece of shrapnel removed from his arm after the attack.

Sailors participated in a memorial service for the more than 2,400 Americans killed in the attack.